In her online “The Barras Report” column this week, Jonetta Rose Barras accused “undercover gay reporters” of undisclosed bias in their coverage of the D.C. same-sex marriage bill.

“Some opponents of same-sex marriage wonder why they couldn’t get coverage in the press similar to proponents,” Barras wrote. “Stand4Marriage coalition members . . . have been cast as backward, homophobic, discriminatory crew.”

Well this crew of forward-thinking non-homophobes need wonder no further! According to Barras, “undercover” gay reporters engaged in a gay media conspiracy to unfairly characterize people who oppose civil rights for gay people as homophobes.

Okay. But where’s the proof? Who are these closeted gay saboteurs? Oh . . . “they know who they are”:

Opponents believe they have received the raw deal in the media because the deck was stacked against them. Several of the individuals who reported on the legislation are themselves gay. None revealed their status in the gay community, which surely created in TBR’s mind a bias. TBR doesn’t want to out anyone. They know who they are.

So if you’re a gay reporter who has failed to out yourself as gay in every story you write that concerns gay people, Barras thinks you’re a “disgrace” to the profession:

Standard practice in journalism is for reporters to publicly announce, whether in print, on the radio, on television, on the Internet, when there is a conflict of interest. But not one of the reporters made such an announcement. And that is a disgrace.

If gay reporters are expected to publicly announce on television that they’re gay whenever they’re involved in reporting out a story that concerns gay marriage in D.C., I’d hope that Barras would pepper every absurd column she writes about undercover gay media conspiracies with unneccessary disclaimers concerning her sexual orientation, and any other possible conflict of interest. Here’s what Barras’ column would look like, with the necessary modifiers:

UNDERCOVER GAY REPORTERS [Full disclosure: TBR is not an undercover gay reporter, but then again, if she were, how would you know? The whole point of being an undercover gay reporter is that you don’t tell people you’re an undercover gay reporter!]; IS IT FAIR? Some opponents of same-sex marriage wonder why they couldn’t get coverage in the press similar to proponents [Full disclosure: the TBR story you are reading is published in “the press”].

The press [Full disclosure: Again, TBR constitutes a member of “the press,” but will nevertheless excuse itself from the following judgment it has made on other members of “the press”] repeatedly referred to Rev Harry Jackson as an outsider come to the District to create trouble. Hundreds of District residents are involved in the movement. But few in the press made an effort to reach out into the city to discern what are the real concerns of opponents. Instead, Stand4Marriage coalition members, who continue to fight District officials on the marriage equality bill [Full disclosure: TBR has been married and divorced] even after the DC Council approved it last week (11-2) and after the mayor signed it into law, have been cast as backward, homophobic, discriminatory crew [Full disclosure: TBR was later accused of being homophobic itself in the comments section of this column].

Opponents believe they have received the raw deal in the media [Full disclosure: TBR is a member of the media] because the deck was stacked against them. Several of the individuals [Full disclosure: TBR is an individual] who reported on the legislation are themselves gay [Full disclosure: TBR is not gay]. None revealed their status in the gay community [Full disclosure: TBR has no status in the gay community], which surely created in TBR’s mind a bias. TBR doesn’t want to out anyone. They know who they are [Full disclosure: TBR is not a member of the closeted gay media conspiracy].

Standard practice in journalism is for reporters to publicly announce, whether in print, on the radio, on television, on the Internet, when there is a conflict of interest. [Full disclosure: TBR is disclosing something]. But not one of the reporters made such an announcement. And that is a disgrace.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery